Meeting vs Webinar?

[Ann.Fisher]

Someone asked me if we might be better off changing from Webex Webinars to Webex Meetings, and I find I have no idea what the differences are. Also haven't found an easy comparison on this site. Background: We facilitate state governamental meetings, so require closed captioning, recording ability, must be able to mute audience members, must have some way to run a Q&A (although hand raise works fine too). Must allow video if user desires (Panelists). Someone told me there is a Lobby feature in Meetings but not in Webinars. Help?

[Kathy N.]

@Ann.Fisher , this isn't a direct comparison but the following 2 links have information about Webinars and Meetings.  The information above is helpful but Webex is constantly changing so keep that in mind as you compare the 2. 

When I describe this to my staff, I tell them that Meetings are about collaboration and all attendees can be given permissions to interact with everyone else so it is usually peer to peer communication.  Webinars are more controlled.  Think of a large meeting room and the presenters are on stage and the audience is in seats on the floor.  Presenters/Hosts manage who can interact from the audience and everyone in the audience is focused on the presenters on stage.

Webinars Info:  https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/en-us/landing/ld-7srxjs-WebexWebinars/Webex-Webinars#Get-Started 

Meetings Info:  https://collaborationhelp.cisco.com/en-us/landing/ld-nyw95a4-WebexMeetings/Webex-Meetings 

[Ann.Fisher]

Thanks, Stephanie!!

[Stephanie Knoop · Accepted solution]

@Ann.Fisher, my CSM provided the attached and said it was ok to share.  It is current as of March 2022.  It is the labor of love of an employee at Cisco, not a public document (yet).

If this type of resource would be helpful publicly (of course it would :)! ), it was suggested that feedback be provided here. You need to scroll to the bottom of the page where you will see "Contact and Feedback".  Ask for a comparison chart and link back to this post for an example of what is desired.

[Vaijanath Sonvane]

Hi @Ann.Fisher,

In a Meeting, as a host you have below options for participants:

• Mute on Entry 
• Mute All
• Allow Attendees to Unmute Themselves

Now, based on your requirements, you can choose these options and control who is allowed to speak. 

[Ann.Fisher]

This is very helpful. Am still hoping to find a nice easy comparison of the two (Meeting vs Webinar) - a reminder to Cisco to keep its end users in mind when posting info.

[jrsteele21]

I think the big difference is control and sizing.  With Webinars, depending on your license can be up to 10,000 people if i am not mistaken.  A regular meeting can be up 1000 people.  A webinar is really an event where speakers and panelists can say or present their thing without interruption.  The host will also have control over who can speak from the audience if that is needed since they will always be muted from the beginning.  The closest thing to a lobby in a Webinar is "practice mode".  When practice mode is turned on, the audience members see a screen that it has not started yet while the hosts and panelists can "practice".  The practice mode screen is also configurable in the Webinar meetings.  Q&A works in both cases.  In my case, with Webinars we disable Q&A and Chat in the Webex settings then just use Slido for Q&A.  With Slido, i can have people who moderate the Q&A from the Slido site and they don't even need to be a host or panelist to do so.

[Ann.Fisher]

Very helpful summary! So, in a Meeting, there is no way to enforce who speaks when, is that the main issue? That would never work for us.

[jrsteele21]

For a meeting you still have some control over who can speak.  

By default, Meetings participants are allowed to mute and unmute themselves freely when they want to speak. In some cases, like large meetings, classroom or training environments where you want to minimize distraction and pick who is allowed to speak, you can uncheck Allow attendees to unmute themselves and attendees will remain on mute unless given permission to unmute.

https://help.webex.com/en-us/article/n94aj5j/Mute-or-unmute-in-Webex-Meetings-Suite#Cisco_Task_in_List_GUI.dita_df7ddc08-ac60-466b-bc66-63dd5eedb497